RED RIBBONS - BLOG TOUR ...it's all happening!

Well it's all about to kick off and already the RED RIBBONS blog tour is proving novel and different!

We don't have a 1 Week Blog tour - We don't have a 2 Week Blog tour, but rather a

 2.29 WEEK BLOG TOUR!

Starting Thursday the 30th August, the tour begins with the lovely lady herself, Katy O'Dowd, and ends Friday 14th September, with the wonderful, Brian Kirk.

All participants are great friends of mine. You might follow some of them already on Twitter, Blogger or Facebook, but if not, they are folks who are great fun to connect with and who are also extremely generous and supportive to me by facilitating the RED RIBBONS (2.29 Week) Blog tour.

Thursday 30th August 2012

KATY O'DOWD, is an arts and entertainment journalist and has worked for Time Out, Associated Newspapers and Comic Relief and her articles have appeared in The Times (London), Metro (London) and many other arts and entertainment publications, paper and online.

She reviews for the Historical Novels Review and the British Fantasy Society, is a commissioning editor at Pendragon Press and is co-editor of the Nasty Snips II Project for that press.

Alongside writing with her Dad under the pen-name Derry O’Dowd, whose first book ‘The Scarlet Ribbon’ was chosen to launch the History Press Ireland’s fiction line, she writes under her own name.

‘The Lady Astronomer’, a YA Steampunk novel, is out with Untold Press this Autumn. She is currently writing a Steampunk adult series because writing for tweens and teens is damnably hard work.

Visit Katy at  www.katyodowd.com                                                 And on Twitter @katyod

Friday 31th August 2012


MICHELLE MOLONEY-KING, is a primary school teacher, writer, avid reader and a pretty awesome person! She blogs about country life, books, school, IT, flash fiction and more at http://teacherMoloneyKing.com

Visit Michelle at http://teacherMoloneyKing.com                       And on Twitter @MoloneyKing

Saturday 1st September 2012

DEBBI MACK, is the New York Times ebook bestselling author of the Sam McRae mystery series, featuring lawyer/sleuth Stephanie Ann “Sam” McRae. She's also had several short stories published, including one nominated in 2010 for a Derringer. A “recovering attorney,” Debbi has also worked as a journalist, librarian and freelance writer/researcher. You can read more about Debbi and her books on her Web site. She also has five blogs, including My Life on the Mid-List, and you can find her on Twitter and Facebook.

Vist Debbi at www.debbimack.com                                               And on Twitter    @debbimack

Sunday 2nd September 2012

SUSAN CONDON, is a native of Dublin, who began writing poetry and short stories in 2008. Writing awards include first prize in the Bealtaine SDCC and CWC SCC City of Dublin VEC Short Story Competitions in 2010; highly commended in Ireland’s Own Prose Competition and www.fivestopstory.com in 2011, and she has just been long-listed in the RTÉ Guide/Penguin Ireland Short Story Competition 2012.

Publications include South of the County: New Myths and Tales in 2010, Senior Times and The Echo in 2011 and InTallaght and www.fivestopstory.com in 2012.

A member of Platform One Writer’s Group, Rua Red, Susan is currently completing her first novel – a crime fiction thriller set in New York.

Visit Susan at  http://susancondon.wordpress.com                      And on Twitter @SusanCondon

Monday 3rd September 2012

ALISON WELLS, is a writer of flash fiction, short stories and novels, and mother of four from Bray, Co. Wicklow. She has worked as a technical writer and has degrees in Psychology and      Communication Studies. Her short fiction has appeared in the Sunday Tribune, Crannóg, The View from Here, Metazen and in many anthologies including the Higgs Boson, Voices of        Angels, and UK National Flash Fiction Day’s Jawbreakers. She has been shortlisted for Hennessy New Irish Writing and for the Bridport, WOW, and Fish Award. This year she won the Big Book of Hope Ebook fiction category with her flash fiction medley Flashes of Entropy and Hope and was awarded a writing residency in Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry to work on The Exhibit of Held Breaths. Another literary novel is ready for submission. She blogs for writing.ie and  on Head above Water www.alisonwells.wordpress.com. Alison has published a space comedy novel Housewife with a Half-LIfe and a mini short collection including Stories to read on the Train.    

Visit Alison at www.alisonwells.wordpress.com                        And on Twitter @AlisonWells


 



Tuesday 4th September 2012

VALERIE SIRR, has had short fiction and flash fiction widely published (Ireland, UK, US, Australia and Asia). Some poems are forthcoming in anthologies from Revival Press, Ireland. Awards include 2007 Hennessy New Irish Writer Award, two Arts Council of Ireland bursaries and other national and international literature prizes, most recently a flash fiction award (2011) from The New Writer Magazine (UK), judged by Catherine Smith, British poet and writer. Valerie’s flash fiction appears on the National Flash Fiction Day 2012(UK) website.

She holds an M. Phil in Creative Writing from Trinity College,Dublin. She teaches creative writing, and she hopes to find a publisher for her flash and story collections soon and is working on a novel.

Visit Valerie at http://www.valeriesirr.wordpress.com/                        And on Twitter@ValerieSirr

Wednesday 5th September 2012

   

NIAMH BAGNELL, ran a 4-page newspaper for a few months in 1985: it cost 20p per issue and was a big hit with the neighbours. Her long-awaited return to writing came in mid-2007, when she joined Lucan Writers Group (meeting, among other talented people, the lovely Louise Phillips). Published in several poetry magazines, and the Stinging Fly. 

She hosted a writing based radio show on Liffey Sound for 1.5 years before giving it all up to move away to hide in the wilderness...  Her blog is variouscushions.blogspot.com which she updates when baby, work, and other circumstances allow...

Visit Niamh at http://variouscushions.blogspot.ie                        And on Twitter @variouscushions

Thursday 6th September 2012

TRIONA WALSH, is a writer of short stories and poetry (and a couple of novels that live in her desk drawer.) Her writing has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies -  Poetry Bus 1 & 3, Petals on a Bough anthology, Caught in Amber anthology, Kay's Book anthology, Flavours of Home, Petals on a Bough, South of the County - New Myths and Tales.

And she has been lucky enough to have had some success in competition, in particular - Winner in the NWA Awards 2008, Winner of the Jonathan Swift Award 2008, Short listed Jonathan Swift 2009 Shortlisted Kay McDonnell Short Story competition 2009, Shortlisted Malahide Library Centenary Short Story competition 2010. Her ambition is to write the next great Irish novel, but she'll settle for just getting out of the slush pile.

Visit Triona at http://trionawalsh.blogspot.ie/                            And on Twitter     @DomesticOub

Friday 7th September 2012

DEREK FLYNN, is an Irish writer and musician, with a First Class Honours degree in English Literature. He’s been published in a number of publications, including The Irish Times, and was First Runner-Up in the 2011 J. G. Farrell Award for Best Novel-In-Progress. He released his debut album, “Do You Dream At All?” earlier this year. His writing/music blog – ‘Rant, with Occasional Music’ – can be found here: http://derekflynn.wordpress.com and on Twitter, he can be found here: http://twitter.com/#!/derekf03

 

Saturday 8th September 2012

ETHEL ROHAN, is the author of Hard to Say and Cut Through the Bone, the latter longlisted for The Story Prize. Her work has or will appear in World Literature Today, Tin House Online, The Irish Times, The Rumpus, Post Road Magazine, and The Los Angeles Review, among many others.

She earned her MFA in fiction from Mills College, California. Raised in Ireland, Ethel Rohan now lives in San Francisco where she is a member of the Writers Grotto.

Visit Ethel at www.ethelrohan.com
http://ethelrohan.tumblr.com                                                       And on Twitter @ethelrohan

Sunday 9th September 2012

NIAMH BOYCE, was awarded the Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year 2012 for her poem Kitty. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the Francis McManus Short Story competition 2011, the Hennessy Literary Awards 2010 and the Molly Keane Award 2010.

Her novel ‘The Herbalist’ will be published by Penguin in 2013. She blogs at http://niamhboyce.blogspot.com.

Visit Niamh at http://niamhboyce.blogspot.com                            And on twitter    @niamhboyce

 


Monday 10th September 2012

LAURENCE O'BRYAN, studied English and history, then business, and IT at Oxford University. He spent ten years working in the City of London, the creaking hub of world finance. He was first published by a school newspaper when he was ten, for a short story about aliens getting lost. The Istanbul Puzzle is his first novel published. It is part of a three book contract with Harper Collins. It will be translated into 9 languages and be published in about 15 countries, and in 2007, he won the Outstanding Novel Submitted award at the Southern California writer's conference.

He is a member of the UK Crime Writer's Association, the Society of Authors, the Irish Writing Centre, two "live" writing groups in Dublin and online writing communities in England and the States. His research has taken me all over the world, from San Francisco to deep in the Arab world. And he still enjoy looking at the stars and listening to the stories of strangers.

Visit Laurence at http://lpobryan.com/ And on Twitter at @LPOBryan





Tuesday 11th September 2012

CATHERINE RYAN HOWARD, is a writer and blogger from Cork, Ireland. Following the success of her self-published travel memoir, Mousetrapped: A Year and A Bit in Orlando, Florida, Catherine went onto self-publish Backpacked: A Reluctant Trip Across Central America and Self-Printed: The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing. She shares her pragmatic, caffeine-infused self-publishing advice at www.catherineryanhoward.com, and currently divides her time between her desk and the sofa.

Visit Catherine at www.catherineryanhoward.com                     And on Twitter @cathryanhoward

Wednesday 12th September 2012

Caren Kennedy is the creator of a television series currently in development with Warner Bros TV, co-author of Fake Alibis (BenBella Books, 2009), careers columnist with Life Times, guest blogger with www.writing.ie, and a screenwriting consultant with The Inkwell Group. Her articles and essays have appeared in local, national and international publications and beyond. She is currently represented in the US by Vamnation Entertainment and Triada US Literary Agency.

Caren can be contacted in a variety of ways:
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/CarenKennedy
Blogs:  http://carenkennedywrites.blogspot.ie                 http://writing.ie/guest-blogs/word-play.html

Thursday 13th September 2012

JOE MC COUBREY, is a former Irish newspaper editor who is now a full-time action thriller writer. In the early seventies he was working in the Civil Service based at Stormont, the seat of the Northern Ireland Government, and was watching behind the scenes as some of the country’s most momentous events unfolded. These were the early dark days of the ‘troubles’ – events that reverberated around the world, and somehow served to push him towards his real passion of writing. He became a newspaperman, started his own media business, and took a front row seat as history was played out in Ireland.

His short action story Death By Licence has just been published by Master Koda Select Publishing. His debut full-length thriller Someone Has To Pay is being released on September 3rd 2012. A second full-length actioner is at the editing stages, and work has started on an Irish crime thriller.

You can visit him at: http://joemccoubrey.com/



Friday 14th September 2012

 

BRIAN KIRK, is a poet and prose writer from Clondalkin, Dublin. He has been shortlisted for various awards in recent years including Hennessy Awards in 2008 and 2011. He was twice shortlisted for RTE’s PJ O’Connor Award for radio drama. His stories and poems have appeared in the Sunday Tribune, Southword, Abridged, The Stony Thursday Book, Crannog, Revival, Boyne Berries, Wordlegs, Cancan, Bare Hands Poetry, The First Cut and various anthologies. You can visit Brian at    http://briankirkwriter.com/